Author(s)

Khalil Ismaiel Hashim

Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Benghazi University, Benghazi, Libya.

The work described in this paper is a study of the estimation of copper, silver and gold coverages on the iridium field emitter tip surface. The study has been carried out by using a simple field emission microscope designed especially for the purpose of the adsorbate coverage calibration. It was equipped with an iridium field emitter tip. On one side of the microscope was the vapor source 12.5 cm from the tip, and on the other side 16.2 cm from the source was a quartz crystal oscillator. The crystal leads were spot welded to a two-pin tungsten-glass press-seal. In front of the crystal, a nickel shield was mounted in which there was a circular hole of an area of 0.0804 cm², slightly smaller than the surface of the crystal, to prevent shorting of the conducting ends of the crystal which would be brought about by the condensed metal. The sensing crystal inside the microscope was driven by a small circuit placed just outside the microscope. The driving circuit was in turn connected to another circuit which comprised a frequency comparator unit which could read the frequency of the quartz crystal oscillator before and after the deposition of the adsorbate and gave a direct digital reading of  (f is the resonance frequency of the crystal before the deposition of the adsorbate and Δf is the difference in the frequency of the oscillator after and before the deposition of the adsorbate on the crystal). The mass added to either side of the crystal alters its resonant frequency. The frequency shift obtained for a certain thickness of the deposited film depends on the density of the deposited film [1] [2].

Field Emission Microscope, Electron Work Function, Adsorbate Coverage Calibration, A Quartz Crystal Oscillator, Resonant Frequency, Fundamental Frequency, A Frequency Comparator Unit, Deposition, Monolayer

Hashim, K. (2018) Estimation of Copper, Silver and Gold Coverages on the Iridium Field Emitter Tip Surface. World Journal of Engineering and Technology, 6, 556-566. doi: 10.4236/wjet.2018.63033.